Hello to all of you in this forum. I am Rick Foster age 65. I am chaplain of the Big Spring State Hospital in Big Spring, Tx. I have been in this ministry for 20+years. I was raised in Lubbock . I went to Southcrest Baptist church. Most of my memory was with J.B. Fowler Called to ministry service age 18 in 1966. Degrees from Howard Payne, SWBTS, and Hardin Simmons. I pastored Tuscola, FBC near Abilene 1976-1983.

Hello Rick, as one of the originals on this site, I am always glad to have a new person aboard. I am however confused about your name, is it Foster or Knott? Also I am curious as a hospital Chaplain, are you acquainted with the name George Pickle? I have a soft spot in my hart for hospital chaplains dating back to 1976 when my 18year old daughter died after 6 weeks in a burn unit. There where two chaplains who helped me retain my faith and sanity. Welcome

If I get a chance I will post some photos os Knott. The church is part of the Crossroads Baptist Association of Big Spring, Tx. This community is in a massive oil boom. We hope to find ways to minister to all these oil men. There are probably 100,000 + new people in the area in the oil and supporting businesses. The area is Midland,Odessa, Andrews, Big Spring, Snyder, SanAngelo, north to Lubbock. We are in the third year of this.

Upon occasion, I check to see who’s saying what and even found out that I was still registered. There seems to be little dialogue these days and what I’ve scanned is eminently predictable vis-à-vis the actors, most preaching to the choir, of course. I bowed out a long time ago…don’t remember exactly when but seems like 2011…after ultra-offending people and when the dear leader and NATO were “liberating/annihilating” Libya. As would be expected of a “doddering old fool,” as once described by a member (or at least something to that effect), I still ramble on in blogs and books, with no claim that either should see the light of day. In late 2011 came forth December in May & Other Stories and in 2012, Hymn Thoughts and Potholes & Other Poems. This year, Time Alone? & Other Poems and Twilight & Other Poems have made the scene. The current subject matter, of course, is highlighted by the on-again, off-again “liberation/annihilation” of Syria, not to mention the “time” ramblings of one quite long-in-the-tooth. Anyone with a huge amount of time to waste is invited to look at the title poems below of the two latter. I will not participate in any further way, so if by the remotest chance someone might be tempted to reply (or bait), fugeddaboutit and just be thankful that Antarctic Sea-Ice volume continued upward setting new records in August while Arctic volume was well above last year’s in August, thus guaranteeing Coney Island’s existence for another week or so and further pooh-poohing MGW. As for the dear leader, God help us all.

Time Alone?

It is a fascinating thing to view,The young will find it somewhat gruesome, too,The older ones with curiosity,The oldest just as fait accompli.In other words, to watch is not to know,To know is yet to watch and feel it growInto reversals of the normal flowThat makes it too opaque to finely showThe elements comprising final things –The final things of which the knowing sings.

It is a fascinating thing to gain,Though some would rather not the thing retainNor even yet be introduced to it,Though either stance engages morbid wit.It cannot be ignored – too obvious,Though some might wish it so superfluous,Its limits do not vary just by time,At least by time, with that alone its rhyme,Within its limits lies a life…or not…Depends on who defines a life…or what.

Twilight

Bright light inexorably diminished,Warning of a thing soon to be finishedThough by no set parameters enhancedBut variant upon how circumstanced…In short, to never be one size for all,Yet quite contrarily casting a pallOn what in changing it not speculateTo lesser be…with dimness not relate.

Its outward cast screams enervation dire,The loss of that which fullness must require,Admission, then, that neither by desireNor by design can brightness it acquire –Ah no…inevitable is its themeAs part of Nature…permanent in scheme,It must ensue as night follows the day –Indeed, it is their bridge…in Nature’s way.

The loss of brightness, yes…it must accept,Expect it will less brightness interceptAs dimness multiplies to further fadePerceptions perhaps wrongly madeWhen brightness was too paramount to cedeAcceptance of a lesser thing…decreed –Indeed, as all light fades itself away,In disappearing, it has had its day.

Glad to know you're still about, or at least extant, Jim. I am hoping to get someone to do a fasola-shapenote adaptation (arrangement) of the tune you gave me for the Noyes fir-tree carol; if I succeed, it will be published in 2015 in a tunebook to be entitled Sankta Harmonio.

Haruo wrote:Glad to know you're still about, or at least extant, Jim. I am hoping to get someone to do a fasola-shapenote adaptation (arrangement) of the tune you gave me for the Noyes fir-tree carol; if I succeed, it will be published in 2015 in a tunebook to be entitled Sankta Harmonio.

Ed: I too am glad to know you are still about. and bringing pleasure to your self and others with your writing.